— by BEV QUESTAD — “What is it about this job that’s worth more than your life?” shouts an exasperated Lindsay Mills’ to her boyfriend, Edward Snowden. Oliver Stone, whose controversial films have won nine Academy Awards, lays out a story about a man willing to give up ev[...]
Author Archive
Review: When Two Worlds Collide
— by BEV QUESTAD — Starting out as if it was going to be a National Geographic special, the gorgeous footage of sounds and sights in the steamy Peruvian Amazon region aims to delight. Then our hero appears and says he is about to become Tarzan. He disrobes and jumps into a murky body of [...]
Review: Go Home
— by BEV QUESTAD — Arriving as an ex-pat now from Paris, hauntingly beautiful Nada returns to her war-torn Lebanese village to find her abandoned old home ransacked and its property full of garbage. “Go Home” is written on the inside of the walls after she returns from hearing a nois[...]
Review: SEED: The Untold Story
— by BEV QUESTAD — “The diversity in our seed stocks is as endangered as a panda or a golden eagle right now. We have the largest seed shortage in history,” warns Will Bonsall, a long-haired, long-bearded 67 year-old dedicated to seed collecting. He reports that 94 percent of our tot[...]
Review: Fatima
— by BEV QUESTAD — I am quite interested in the complex issues swirling around immigration because I shelter an immigrant from a third world country in my own home. As an orphan, he had no opportunity for a decent education in his home country and no prospects for a career. But after imm[...]
Review: For the Love of Spock
— by BEV QUESTAD — The raised eyebrow, the split fingers salutation, the mind meld and the dignified pointed ears: Spock represented a logically-evolved mind dedicated to the search for truth. Leonard Nimoy, who embodied this Star Trek (ST) character, became inextricably linked to his se[...]
Review: Sonita
— by BEV QUESTAD — Even though girls are not allowed to perform in Afghanistan or Iran, Sonita is absolutely obsessed with singing. This brave documentary follows her as she dangerously competes in, and then wins, an international online rap contest. Award-winning filmmaker Rokhsareh Gha[...]
Review: A Beautiful Now
— by BEV QUESTAD — Daniela Amavia, the writer/director/producer of this haunting psychological study, is a stunning Greek model for Chanel and Dior who became an actress, director and producer. Shot in 18 days, “A Beautiful Now” is an insightful study not only into AmaviaR[...]
Review: My King (Mon Roi)
— by BEV QUESTAD — The guy is neither all that good looking nor professionally stable. But he’s got a swagger, a self-confidence bound in self-indulgence, and he lives for the now without reflection. He is what my mother would call a rake, a man without morals or empathy. This film is [...]
Review: My Love, Don’t Cross that River
— by BEV QUESTAD — I love this film. Couched in poetic scenery through the seasons, this love story/documentary reveals a 76-year partnership that teaches and inspires. The couple lives on a traditional South Korean outpost across from an embankment to a bubbling stream. They have two do[...]
Review: Open Your Eyes
— by BEV QUESTAD — “Tell me, Mother, would you like to see again?” After 15 years in the dark, the crinkly, barefoot grandmother is stunned by the question. Despite the corrupt, bizarre, dark, despairing days we live in, there are beacons of angelic light blinking out there in the re[...]
Review: The Crossing
— by BEV QUESTAD — George Kurian, a documentary filmmaker and photojournalist based in Istanbul, was covering the war in Syria when he decided to document a group of Syrians on their risky defection to the west. The clandestine sea voyage from Syria to Egypt is illegal because Syria won[...]
Review: Starless Dreams
— by BEV QUESTAD — After seven years of trying, award-winning director Mehrdad Oskouei was given access to an incarceration facility for girls 18 and under in Iran. Gently asking them why they were there and what their hopes for the future were, he discovered a societal crime greater tha[...]
Review: Chapter and Verse
— by BEV QUESTAD — Sir Lancelot Ingram is a magnificently strong, handsome, quiet ex-con. He served eight years. Now, he is out, living in a half-way house back in the same Harlem hood that brought him to trouble. But this time, the bad guys are younger, operating the streets without rul[...]